


Watch Your Step (You'll Need A Miracle)

by opheliahyde



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Bloodplay, F/M, M/M, Rough Sex, Sexual Violence, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:22:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opheliahyde/pseuds/opheliahyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-<i>The Sacrifice</i>. When Katherine meets Tyler and sees the way his fingers curl over Jeremy's hand, the possessive flash in his eyes as he glares at her, she takes advantage and decides to play a vicious game with her new wolf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watch Your Step (You'll Need A Miracle)

The first time he sees her, he thinks she’s Elena and he has to shake that notion out of his head. He knows she’s not, especially with the way she runs her hands down Jeremy’s chest and toys with his tie, grinning wickedly with blood-red lips. Something twists uncomfortably in Tyler’s stomach at the sight of them, it’s not just the resemblance to Elena that’s bothering him and sickeningly wrong vibes that conjures up, it’s the way she _looks_ at Jeremy, like she’s going to eat him alive and enjoy destroying him.

Tyler can’t help it, he goes over there and interrupts, leaving his post and probably ruining their plan, but he can’t really bring himself to care. He curls his fingers through Jeremy’s, pressing their palms together as he stakes his claim and challenges her to make a move.

Katherine just looks amused, biting her lip and twirling her hair, dark eyes dancing behind her mask. “Down boy,” she says, patting his cheek and ghosting a hand down his arm. “Now’s not the time to get territorial.” Then she glances at Jeremy, her features hardening. “Tell Damon and Stefan that I tire of their games. The clock is ticking and they know what I‘m like when I get bored.”

She waves them off, smiling at Tyler in a way that makes him want to scrub his skin raw. “See you soon,” she says, then disappears like she wasn’t there at all.

Jeremy turns towards him, untangling their fingers and his eyes flashing. “I had it handled,” he says, his tone sharp and it cuts at Tyler. He didn’t want to be like them, Stefan and Damon and all the others. He doesn’t want to treat Jeremy like a stupid kid.

Tyler reaches out and tries to touch him, to settle him, but Jeremy backs away. “She was handling you,” Tyler says with a deep breath. “I didn’t like it.”

“You’re so-” Jeremy starts, but stops himself and walks around Tyler, heading in the opposite direction from the house, stopping only once to call over his shoulder. “Just tone it down on the possessive boyfriend routine. I’m going to check on Bonnie and see how she’s doing.”

Then he’s gone and Tyler’s left alone, and alone is the last thing he wants to be right now. Tyler wanders back towards the house and hopes Matt is still there, hopes Matt will keep him company until this whole Katherine and the moonstone thing is resolved.

He has a target on his back and there’s strength in numbers.

 

 

~~  
~~

When Jeremy ends up in the tomb with _her_ , Tyler can’t help but hating himself a little more than he already does for killing Sarah, for letting Katherine’s tactics get the best of him, for being weak, and hating this whole fucking situation. The rage boils up in him, nearly exploding out and he has to fight the urge to beat his fists bloody on the stone walls.

Jeremy doesn’t look good when Katherine yanks him out of the darkness and into the light by the scruff of his shirt, pale and shaking and staring at everyone with dazed eyes, and Tyler has to ignore every instinct to rush in there and pull him out. Katherine taunts him with her eyes, with the way she brushes her fingers through Jeremy’s hair and leans their heads together, brushing her blood-painted lips against his cheek. “Now if you’ll excuse me,” she says, her eyes scanning the room, appraising each of them. Her eyes fall back on Tyler and he wants to scratch them out. “I’ll be in back, playing with my new little toy. Tick-tock.” She smirks at Tyler, then pushes Jeremy back behind the stone wall and follows him with a giggle that reverberates and cuts Tyler to ribbons.

In the end, it’s Stefan that gets Jeremy out. Bonnie’s spell falters and Katherine loses her patience and Tyler loses his sanity. He almost makes it to the edge before Stefan yanks him back and steps inside, pushing Jeremy out and pinning Katherine to the wall in a move so quick, Tyler barely has time to register it. Then he’s crawling across the floor and grabbing a shell-shocked Jeremy up in his arms, pressing his face against his neck, whispering, “God, you’re so stupid, don’t ever do anything so stupid again.” He looks up at Stefan and tries to feel guilty, but all he feels is grateful.

Stefan merely nods at him, like he understands, and Tyler feels like the worst person in the world for ever hating him.

 

 

 

Tyler brings Jeremy home to clean him up. He acts defeated and sullen, like he learned his lesson about reigning in his impulsive nature, but there’s undercurrent of something skittering under his features, a panicked look about his eyes that Tyler can’t shake.

Then Jeremy grabs a hold of his shirt and hauls him up against a wall in the kitchen, pressing in close and kissing him with a desperate edge to his every action, licking and biting, whining in the back of his throat when he can’t get close enough, can’t go deep enough. He pulls off Tyler’s shirt, the fabric catching and stretching before it’s over his head, and then Jeremy sucks along his neck, his nails scratching across the skin of his back.

It’s like he wants to crawl inside Tyler and never come out again, like he wants to forget and fill up the spaces with something good, and Tyler doesn’t know what to do, so he pushes Jeremy back. “You should take a shower,” he says with his hand on Jeremy’s chest, feeling his heart beat against his palm, feeling his breath heave in his chest, and he’s grateful all over again that he’s alive. “I’ll put your clothes in the washer and hope the stains come out.” Tyler catches Jeremy’s eyes, and the strange mix of want and worry in them.

“You’re not leaving, are you?” Jeremy asks, his voice small and cracked, almost sneaking out between his lips.

Tyler tries to force a smile. “No.”

Jeremy reaches out and brushes his hand down Tyler’s face, cupping his jaw before dropping his arm to his side. “Good,” he says, and then turns in the direction of the stairs, pulling off his plaid button-down and leaving it on the floor. Jeremy leaves a trail of clothes behind him, shedding layers of clothes like layers of memories, slowly and piece-by-piece. Tyler doesn’t want to think about what happened in the tomb, but his mind comes up with enough scenarios that have his stomach churning and making him want to throw up, and he wants to take the collection of clothes in his arms out back and burn them to ash.

Tyler throws them in the washer instead, dumping detergent over them and cranking the washer on. He scrubs a hand down his face and goes to pick up his shirt of the kitchen floor, but decides not to put it back on, moving on towards the stairs. He kicks of his shoes at the door to Jeremy’s room and shimmies out of his jeans and tosses them with his shirt across the back of Jeremy’s computer chair. He slides under the covers of Jeremy’s bed and tries not to think.

Tyler ends up dozing, finding himself a warm and comfortable spot in Jeremy’s bed, but he wakes up when Jeremy wanders into the room, hair wet and pajama bottoms riding low on his hips. His skin looks flushed, more so than from just the heat of the shower and when Tyler sits up and Jeremy comes closer, it looks almost scrubbed raw. Tyler frowns and Jeremy forces a smile as he crawls into bed, not saying a word when he scoots closer. Tyler reaches for him, breathing deep as his fingers slip on still damp skin, but he manages to fold himself around Jeremy, twining their legs as he drapes himself across Jeremy’s back, their bare skin sticking together.

Jeremy lifts Tyler’s hand from his waist and presses it against his chest, curling his own around it. Tyler reacts by kissing the back of his neck, over the still healing bite marks, and then he presses his face against Jeremy’s bare shoulder and holds him tighter, hoping they’ll be gone in the morning.

 

 

 

Tyler has never been down this hallway, but it feels recognizable, like he’s been here before and knows the way, so he travels further until he comes upon a door. He pushes it open and ushers himself inside, the door shutting behind him. There’s very little light in the room, but there’s enough to see by and his eyes adjust as he makes his way forward.

On the bed are Elena and Jeremy, but something’s not right. Elena presses her face against Jeremy’s neck as he smiles and strokes her hair, curling the wavy strands around his fingers. Then Elena bites Jeremy, sinking her teeth into the side of his neck and Tyler realizes it’s not Elena at all. He wants to rush forward and yank Katherine away, but his legs lock up on him and he can’t make them move. Katherine continues feeding, the sounds of her sucking and slurping hitting Tyler in the gut as she lowers Jeremy to the bed, climbing over him. And he goes with the smile still on his face.

Katherine pulls off as she wipes at her mouth, leaving Jeremy pale and prone, lying still on the bed as she turns toward Tyler. “Oh, don’t look so worried,” she says, patting the space next to her like she wants him to come to her. “He’ll come back. He always does.”

Tyler tests his legs and finds he can move, but he doesn’t dare to. He doesn’t want to get any closer to them. He finds his resolve sorely tested when Jeremy gasps for breath as he sits up, coming back to life before Tyler’s eyes, the color exploding back into his cheeks. Katherine pulls him to her and Jeremy rests his head on her chest as her fingers brush through his hair, kissing the top of his head and murmuring something to him Tyler can’t hear. “Such a sweet boy,” Katherine says, her eyes lifting and addressing Tyler. “And he’s all mine.”

Jeremy sits up and grabs for Katherine’s face, cradling her head between his palms as drags her in for a kiss. Tyler stands stock-still in his spot as Katherine wraps her arms around Jeremy’s neck and his hands slide down to her waist, maneuvering them so Katherine straddles Jeremy’s lap when she pulls back and rests their heads together. Jeremy looks up at her utter adoration in his eyes and Tyler wants to run, feeling the sickness in his stomach rise up to his chest and clench around his heart.

“Can I have him?” Jeremy asks Katherine, his gaze turning pleading as his mouth rises in a pout. “We’d have so much fun together.”

Katherine brushes a hands down his face, her grin turning sharp as it is pleased, a proud look spreading across her features. “Of course,” she says, gliding off his lap and fading into the darkness, the white of her teeth the last thing Tyler can see. “But you’ll have to get him yourself.”

Then Jeremy gets up from the bed and walks toward him, reaching out to Tyler until fingers rest on his face and his palm cradles his cheek. Tyler leans into his touch, craving the comfort of familiarity as he looks up at Jeremy, who smiles at him fondly. “Come on, Tyler,” Jeremy says, voice low and darkly seductive, and Tyler want to recoil from him at the same time as he wants to fall against him and accept what he’s offering. Then Jeremy’s smile cracks, his eyes flaring and his teeth turning pointed. “Join us.”

Tyler wakes up drenched in his own sweat as his phone buzzes at him. He sits up, wincing when he moves too fast with his limbs still aching from the transformation, still feeling like they’re settling back into their original shape. He catches his breath as he reaches for the phone, flipping it open and putting it to his ear as he rubs a hands down his face. “Hello?” he asks, wincing at how rough his voice sounds.

Jeremy’s voice comes through the receiver, nervous and small, and Tyler flashes back to his dream (more like _nightmare_ ) and he gets out of bed, no questions asked, at the sound of it.

“We have a problem,” Jeremy says.

 

 

 

It’s late when Tyler gets home, the house his dark, and he’s pretty sure his mom’s in bed. There was another crisis and somehow he got roped into it again. He thought this Scooby Gang business would end once they got Stefan out of the tomb (not that they had anything to do with it) and everything would go back to some semblance of normal, but then Katherine somehow broke out and everything went to hell. He steps lightly through the house and up the stairs, careful not to make any noise until he’s near his room; not that his mom would wake up from her heavily medicated sleep, but he likes to put up the pretense.

He gets into his room and flips on the light and finds Katherine lounging on his bed, flipping through one of his sketchbooks, wearing new clothes. A simple cotton tank top and a flimsy skirt over bare thighs, her boot-clad feet dangling off the edge of his bed. She looks up at him and greets him with a pleasant, _welcome home, honey_ smile that unnerves him more than idea of Katherine being in his room.

“These are really quite good,” she says, snapping the book closed with one hand and getting up from the bed, walking towards him, then bypassing him completely as she turns on her heel towards his desk and lays the sketch book down. “Who knew you were a regular Monet.” She stalks closer to him, the grin on her mouth sharp. “That sketch of Jeremy is particularly… _striking_. Did he model for you?”

Tyler breathes and clenches his fits, clamping down hard on the need to react. It’s difficult and it takes a lot, but he manages to stop himself from attempting to strangle her. “We’ve been looking for you,” he says, deflecting. “We were wondering how you got out.”

“Aw, how cute,” she purrs, stepping into his personal space and tapping his nose. “They let you into their little club after all.” She turns away from him again, pacing back across the floor in a manner that reminds Tyler of a caged panther. She leans back against his desk and crosses her arms, looking down her nose at him like she’s unimpressed. “I’ve been here the whole time you were all out there running around in circles,” she says, scoffing. “But what do you expect when you’ve got Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum leading the brigade.”

His blood runs cold. “What do you mean you’ve been here this whole time?” he asks, keeping his voice level, but he feels like he’s wearing his panic on his sleeve.

Katherine saunters back over to him, reaching out and caressing his cheek. “Shh, _relax_. Mommy is well. All tucked up in her bed, safe and sound, her glass of wine on the bedside table. I’ve checked in on her and she hasn’t made a peep. Such a heavy sleeper,” she says, her expression full of mock concern.

Tyler pulls her hand away from his face and shoves it away from him as she laughs, high and mocking. “How did you even get in here?” he asks, stepping back as she steps forward. “I thought vampires had to be invited in.”

“Oh, Tyler,” she says, reaching towards his neck, her hands diverting at the last minute and going for his shirt collar, adjusting it and making it lay straight. “Don’t you remember? What was it? Your father’s wake, I believe. You smiled at me, took my hand and thanked me for coming, and then you invited me in.” She looks up at him, her lips twisting into a smirk. “Of course, you thought I was Elena then, but anyway… semantics.”

Tyler doesn’t know what to think, what to feel. This feels like one of those moments at the end of horror movies where everything comes together and wrenches the perspective in a completely different direction. Nothing feels safe anymore. “Why?” he asks, thinking it’s probably the stupidest thing he could say, but he needs to know. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I lost my werewolf,” Katherine says, her voice soft and morose, almost regretful. It surprises Tyler for a moment, until she moves in so her body presses against his and her eyes light up as her hand slithers up his neck, her fingers twining in the short hair at the back of his head. “I need a werewolf and you happen to fit the bill perfectly.”

The cord on his control snaps, the burning pit of anger erupting and opening the floodgates to him doing something incredibly stupid. He grabs her hand in a grip so tight he can feel the way her delicate bones grind together and twists her arm behind her back as he moves forward with momentum, slamming her against the far wall of his room. It’s useless and futile, he knows she’s stronger than him, that she’s letting him because it amuses her and when he’s got her pinned, she laughs delightfully in his face. “You’re fun,” she says, arching her neck and touching their foreheads together. “Much more fun than your Uncle Mason was.”

Tyler slams her against the wall again, bending her arm back further and at angle that on a normal girl, it’d break, but on Katherine it’s like a mosquito bite: inconveniencing and annoying, but nothing to cry over. “What did you do to Mason?” he says, grinding his teeth down to keep from shouting. “I know he didn’t make it back to Florida.”

Katherine tilts her head back and clicks her tongue. “Me?” she says, her expression puzzled. “I didn’t do anything to Mason.” She grins, something flickering in those dark of hers, identical to Elena‘s, but somehow alien and foreign at the same time. “Maybe you should look into your new friends. You just don’t know who you can trust these days.”

He leans in and sneers in her face. “What do you mean?” he demands, pressing her further against the wall. “Tell me what you mean by that.”

Katherine sighs and with a dramatic roll of her eyes, she flips their positions, her hand crushing down on his windpipe as she stretches out her other arm, letting crack and pop as it heals. “That was getting tiring,” she says, pouting and _tsk_ ing at him as her hand squeezes tighter around his throat. He claws at her hand, gasping for breath he can’t take in. She moves in close and peers at him with curious eyes. “Are we going to stop asking stupid questions?” she asks.

Tyler tries to nod the best he can and Katherine loosens her grip, but keeps her hand where it is, her touch turning gentle and affectionate, rubbing at the bruising skin like she’s sorry, but Tyler knows better. His throat feels raw and it burns when he inhales and coughs, but the feeling fades away little-by-little and the expression on Katherine’s face is pure delight.

“So you can heal,” she says, biting down on her lower lip. “That’s very good to know.” Then her mood changes, flips like a switch, her lips pursing and pouting. “Though, I can’t hurt you too bad. You sadly won’t come back like Jeremy did, over and over again,” she says, her hand moving upwards and cupping his cheek as she runs her thumb over his lips. “Do want to know how many times I killed him and how he just kept coming back for more?”

Tyler _growls_ , a reaction that just rips out of him. His mind goes foggy and hazy, like he’s not in control anymore, only instinct and emotion and impulse guiding him, he only sees in red. It’s like the transformation all over again, except there’s no pain, just the wolf and him, warring for dominance. Tyler snaps his teeth over Katherine’s thumb and bites down, tearing flesh and drawing blood, tasting the metallic tang and wanting more.

Katherine frowns at him like he’s a misbehaving child, and grabs him by the throat again, but lifting him this time and dragging him towards the bed and tossing him down. She crawls over him, quick and slithery like a snake, and straddles his hips, her small hands laced around his wrists, pinning him down like iron cuffs. She leans over Tyler, her face pressing close to his, her cheek brushing his as her lips touches his ear.

“Bad dog, we don’t nip,” she whispers, then pulls away, her nails digging into his skin. “I hope you’re not getting ideas, that whole one bite can kill a vampire thing doesn’t work while you’re _human_.” Katherine sits up and pulls him with her, wrapping her legs around his back as she lays her head on his shoulder. “Though, I can’t exactly say that you’re fully human, not with that display,” she says, and then she slides her lips across his throat, nuzzling along his jaw line. “You’ve transformed since we last met, haven’t you? I can tell. The wolf is making you all crazy inside that pretty little head of yours. Making you _such_ an animal.” Katherine pushes herself away from him, catching his face in her hands. “I like that.”

“Did you like that about Mason?” Tyler asks, putting his hands on her hips. He thinks maybe if he plays along, if he can distract her long enough, he can get out of this and get to Stefan or Damon (though his brain is screaming, _no, get to Jeremy, don’t let her get her claws in him again_ ), then this all can be over and they can figure out some way to be rid of her forever. He rubs his thumbs in soft circles over her hipbones, treating her soft and sweet like he treated Vicki, hoping it confuses her, hoping he gets the upper-hand. “Is that what you want? Someone to replace Mason?”

She rests their heads together as her mouth curves upward like a half-moon. “In more ways than one,” she says, pulling at his shirt, snapping off the buttons like popping bubble wrap. He’s down to his undershirt and Katherine presses her face into his neck, breathing deep. “I wonder if you’ll like it when I bite you,” she says, lifting her head away, hands going towards his undershirt and ripping it apart slowly, inch-by-inch.

“Mason didn’t. I’m beginning to think Mason was a stick in the mud.” She tosses the remnants of his shirt like the flimsy piece of cotton personally offended her, then she pushes him down on the bed, holding him easily. “Mason wanted to kiss and snuggle and be a _couple_ ,” she says, sneering at the very idea. Then her eyes flick towards his, eagerness alighting the dark depths. “But _you_ , you want to tear me apart. So fitting, considering how much I want to crack Jeremy open and see how much of a mess I can make of that boy.”

Tyler snarls, his hands rising up and seizing Katherine around the throat, managing to flip their positions. His hands squeeze tight as he presses her against the mattress, but Katherine still manages to laugh at him. It’s an awful, choking sound that should make him feel sick, but he just pushes harder, wanting to shut her up for good.

Katherine reaches up and uncurls his fingers, pulling them away from her neck. “That’s quite enough of that,” she says as Tyler watches the hand shaped bruises fade away before his eyes. She takes his hands then and slides them under her shirt, pushing them along the skin of her stomach. Tyler rears back and tries to yank himself out of her grasp and almost succeeds, but she hangs on by his fingers, pushing them back painfully.

“What’s the matter?” she asks, her voice dripping with sickening sweetness as he pulls herself up by his hands, his knees now bracing her slim hips as she sits up and looks up at him with wide brown eyes. “Don’t you think I’m pretty?” She pulls him closer, climbing his arms like ropes until hers are wrapped around his neck and he can feel her face press against his cheek, her teeth sharpening against his skin. Katherine nuzzles his face, then he feels her lips at his ear. “Or am I just not your type?“ she says, her teeth catching on his earlobe and he feels them puncture skin, harsh and pinching. She suckles for a moment, then moans as she pulls off as her arms slide away and her hands catch his face, looking so closely at him, their noses touch. “Or do I look like the wrong Gilbert?”

Tyler keeps his mouth shut and his jaw on lockdown as he stares into her inscrutable eyes and tries to look impassive. If it’s a reaction she wants, she’s not going to get one. He’s not going to let her have the satisfaction anymore.

“Oh, don’t go all stoic on me now,” Katherine says with a whine to her voice, her lips pursing as her fingers brush through his hair, her hands tilting his head back. “If I wanted a puppet on a string, I’d go compel someone.”

“Might as well go do that,” Tyler says, shrugging his shoulders limply, letting her squirm underneath him and moving him about in ways she thinks will get him to react, but he never does. “I’m done. Fun’s over now.”

She goes for his throat again, her nails digging through layers of skin. “Fun’s not over until I say it is,” she says viciously, yanking him in by the neck. Then her mouth splits into a toothy grin. “Though, I could go fetch Jeremy. I bet he could make you behave.” Tyler tenses reflexively and her smile broadens. “Would you like that? You, me, and _Jeremy_. I bet you would play then.”

Tyler wrestles her hand away from his neck, hissing when her nails scrape against the already fresh wounds. She’s beaming above him the entire time, even when she eventually gives up and lets him go.

“ _No_ ,” he says, his voice rough as he grabs a hold of her shoulders and pins her to the bed. “No, you can have me, but not him. Take it or leave it.”

Katherine looks up at him, a bemused look in her eyes as she taps her finger against her lips. “But don’t you think it would be better if he was here?” she asks, canting her head to the side. “I mean, what will you tell him afterwards?” Then she _giggles_. “You can’t really say it was an accident,” she says, her expression turning suddenly somber. “I better go get him. Honest and open relationships are the key to success, Tyler.”

She moves to get up, but he pushes her back down again, using all his strength against her, even if it proves unnecessary; if she wanted up, she’d push him out of the way and be halfway to Jeremy’s by now. “You’re not going to get him,” he says, hovering above her, feeling a grin form on his own lips. “You don’t want to, that’s not on your agenda for tonight.”

Katherine flips them and drags his hands above his head. “Don’t tell me want I want,” she says, stretching out his arms and pressing herself along the length of his body, her thighs cradling his hips tightly. “I could tie you to the bed right now and have Jeremy here in a matter of minutes and there would be nothing you could do about it, but I’m giving you a _choice_ ,” she says, staring down at him, the dark curtain of her hair blocking out the lamplight and leaving her face oddly shadowed.

“How generous of you.”

Katherine frowns at him, then ducks her head down, resting it against his shoulder as he lets go of his wrists and twines their fingers together instead. “I miss him,” she says softly, almost wistfully as she curls against him. “We were having so much fun in the tomb.” Her nails dig into the backs of his hands when he tenses and then he feels her mouth at his neck, her fangs scraping against his skin. Then she licks along the line of his neck, stopping behind the back of his ear. “He’s such a _sweet_ boy. He makes the most enticing noises, little mewls and moans when I bit him like he wanted more.” He can feel the outline of her pointed teeth on the curve of his ear, pressing down lightly and letting go. She nudges her nose against his cheek. “Has a bit of a thing for vampires, your boy.”

“Jeremy doesn’t-” Tyler starts, but Katherine presses a finger to his lips, shaking her head.

“Oh, he _does_ ,” she says, flashing a smile at him. “Trust me.” Then her face turns thoughtful. “Or is it a supernatural kink altogether?” she asks, peering down at him. “Do werewolves turn his crank as much as vampires, or are you just the exception that proves the rule? Maybe I should go get him and find out once and for all which he prefers.”

Tyler pulls against her hold, trying to buck her off, but to no avail. He settles back against the mattress, defeated. “Just… leave him out of this, okay?” he asks, turning his eye pleading and feeling sick because he’s been reduced to begging. “I’ll do whatever you want, just leave him alone.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” Katherine asks, blinking and looking honestly perplexed. Then she sighs and climbs off of him. “I guess if you’re not going to choose, I’ll choose for you,“ she says as she stands up and straightens her shirt, then heads in the direction of the door. “I’ll be right back, you wait here.”

Tyler’s not sure when he developed such quick reflexes, but he’s got her wrist in his hand before she takes another step and then he’s got her underneath him not a moment after that, using his body to pin her to the bed. “I said _no_ ,” he growls, bearing down on her and nearly snarling it in her face.

Katherine’s eyes sparkle up at him. “Are you rough like this with Jeremy?” she asks with an amused twist to her lips. “I don’t think you are. He’s got you trained to obey.” She arches her back, pressing herself against him. “But I bet you _want_ to be.” Then she lifts her head and in one quick motion, covers his mouth with hers in brutal mockery of a kiss and he kisses back with as much ferocity, not sure what else to do, tightening his grip on her wrists. She bites at his lips and laves her tongue over the blood welling up in neat little dots. She breaks away then, pulling back as she licks her lips and he breathes heavily.

“You just want to hold him down and take,” she says, her eyes flicking to his like she understands something about him he doesn’t even understand himself. “But instead you roll over for him and play tame wolf. I must say…” She pauses and moves in for another kiss, her eyelids fluttering closed coyly, but she pulls back at the last minute. “I find that utterly pathetic,” she finishes, her tone mocking as she uses her legs as leverage and flips him onto his back once more, her hands breaking free of his hold and making purchase on his wrists. “You should only submit to those whom are stronger than you and even then, you keep fighting, don’t give an inch.”

“Then what are we doing here?” Tyler asks, bowing his neck and lifting his face to meet hers. She grins down at him, but he keeps his face impassive. “What is the point to this exercise?”

Katherine lets go of his wrists, but keeps her hold on him with the pressure of her body as she runs a fingertip down the side of his face. “Fun, of course,” she says, tilting his chin up. “I just wanted to play with you.” Her breath brushes hot against his lips, but she doesn’t kiss him. Not yet. She moves closer, pressing their cheeks together. “Like I played with your friend Matt,” she whispers in his ear.

Tyler bucks up on instinct, kicking out and grabbing a hold of her, making purchase anywhere he can as she laughs and pins him down by his shoulders. “I like it when you fight,” she says, twisting her hips against him in a way that makes him hiss and push harder against her hold. “It makes everything more dangerous. Ever play with fire, Tyler?”

He grunts as he falls limp against his bed and he catches her frown as he gives up on the struggle; she lets off the pressure on his shoulders. That’s when he strikes, wrapping his hands around her ribcage and lifting her away. Tyler escapes the bed and fully intends to drop her on the floor, but she clings to him, curling her limbs around him to keep hold because for once, she’s not in a position to use her strength against him. Then he feels her teeth slide into his neck, pinching and burning like the jab of a hundred hypodermics, only thousand times worse because she starts sucking and lapping at his neck, moaning like he tastes good. He suppresses a shudder at the thought, skipping over the struggling part, and rushes towards the wall and slams her against it. Katherine’s mouth comes off his neck with a _pop_ as her head falls back with the force of the hit. She smiles at him with her painted mouth, her tongue dashing out to catch the remnants as he holds her away from him.

“I wanted to wait until later,” Katherine says, looking put out, but satisfied; the conflict of emotions should cancel each other out, but Katherine balances between them like it’s an art form. “It can be _so good_ , but you forced my hand. That’s what you get for being bad.”

“Is that what you did to Matt?” Tyler asks, his voice lower, colder and more calculating than he ever expected of himself as he holds her gaze. “Did you bite him, too?”

Katherine sighs. “No,” she says, disappointment invading her tone before her face brightens up. “I did get to mess with that pretty little head of his, though. And I could pay him a visit later. I do suppose I have you to thank for that. I’m glad you didn’t kill him, despite my best efforts.”

Tyler tries to jerk away, but she holds on to his arms, keeping him there with her. The slow slide of realization is hitting him quickly and hard, taking away his breath as it smashes against his chest. “It was you,” he says.

“Like I said, I was down a werewolf and needed another,” she says, folding her arms around him like she means to comfort him. “Did it hurt you? What he said?” she asks, then grabs his chin and lifts, looking into his eyes. “Chin up. He _probably_ didn’t mean it.”

Tyler wants to shake her off and push her away because he wants out of this room, he wants away from her and the words spilling out of her mouth. He wants to run and scream until his lungs give out and he collapses because that’s better than being slowly suffocated, strangled by every new revelation as she winds and winds herself around him, digging deep until she’s under his skin and leaving traces so she’ll never leave him. But he stays. Because there’s no way out. Not for him. She’s blocked every exit and made his room a prison cell.

“Do you get it yet?” Katherine says, almost cooing the words as she strokes back his hair, cupping his cheek. “I’m everywhere. You see how easy it was to get into your home and invade your space, your _head_? I’ve been in Jeremy’s house, too. Matt’s. I had that insipid Caroline under my thumb. I’ve talked to your mother and had your uncle wrapped around my pinky. I’ve got my claws into everyone and I’ve got my hands all over this town. I tore it all apart one-hundred and forty-five years ago and I’ll do it again.”

“And me?” he asks, knowing full well he doesn’t want to know the answer, but his sanity is slipping and he just wants to be done with it, sick of standing on the edge of this precipice waiting to be pushed off.

“Because,” Katherine says, holding his gaze. “…you’re like me. You haven’t realized it, yet you fight and you fight against it. I just wanted to open your eyes.” She brushes her down his cheekbone and he leans into her hand, her touch surprisingly warm. “And I wanted to play with you. Will you play with me, Tyler?”

The answer should be _no, hell no_. But Tyler is losing room to stand and he’s only hanging on because she wants him to take that leap, she wants him to choose, no matter how much she’s angled and manipulated and forced the decision; in the end, she wants him to make the choice of his own free will and that maybe is what fucks with his head the most. And, finally, something does crack in his brain and she smiles like she knows she’s won as every rational thought escapes and all that normality he clung to falls away and is dashed to pieces on the floor.

He reaches for her, his hands tangling in her hair and tugging as he pulls her in. “Okay,” Tyler says, tipping her head back with the sweep of his thumbs along the column of her throat. “Okay.”

“You don’t have to sound so heartbroken about it,” she says, enclosing her arms around his neck, urging their bodies together as she slips her calf around his, locking them together. “There are worse things, trust me.”

“Just shut up,” he says, descending and invading her mouth, kissing her with more teeth than lips and biting down, but she arches her back and hums against his tongue.

Katherine bites him back and sucks at his mouth, and Tyler realizes how intimately he’ll know the taste of his own blood by the time this is through. She pulls back and he can feel the pulse of the open wound before it heals over and seals up like new. Katherine narrows her eyes at him and before he notices, she’s got a handful of his hair and she wrenches it back as she rises up on her toes, meeting his gaze. “Don’t ever tell me to shut up,” she says, releasing his hair.

“Maybe if you didn’t talk so much, I wouldn’t have to,” he says, his hands moving over her waist and his fingers catching at the edge of her top, gripping the fabric and pulling it up over her head. Katherine looks at him with a cocked brow, her hair in tangled waves over her shoulders. “Leveling the playing field.” He shrugs. “Now we’re even.”

“Not quite,” Katherine says, snapping her bra strap and letting it slap against her skin. “You forgot this.”

“Leave it,” he says.

Katherine’s eyes turn sharp, as if looks can cut. “What if I don’t want to? I think it’s better if it comes off.”

She reaches her hands around her back, but Tyler grabs them away, twisting them back around. “No,” he says as he lets go of her arms and moves his hands span her waist, hoisting her up and using the wall as leverage as he reaches for her thigh, draping it over his hip as he presses her to the wall. She looks at him appraisingly and for a moment, he feels sick. He doesn’t want to do anything to merit her approval. But it passes and his fingers skate up her thigh, pushing back the scrap of fabric she calls a skirt. “Leave it,” Tyler repeats, slanting forward and touching their foreheads together.

Katherine smiles at him, her eyes black in the low light as she gazes back at him. He can feels her fingers tip-toeing over the edge of his jeans, toying with his belt until she swaps gears, clinging to his neck as she wraps her other leg around him, bringing him closer as she lifts his head. Tyler closes the distance and brushes his mouth over hers, finding distraction in kissing her as his hand moves higher and then lower, in between them.

He’s not used to girls anymore, too used to Jeremy now with his tactile handling, his hard planes and his rough calluses, but he remembers how to work the equipment. His fingers slip around her damp underwear, lacy scrap of fabric much akin to her skirt, and dip into her folds. Katherine hisses, biting down on his lip and pulls back, hers back arching as she rocks against him.

“Careful with those,” she says, panting in his ear. “They’re expensive.”

He can’t help himself, he slides his other hand under her ass to keep her where he wants her, but to mostly gather up the fabric of her underwear, pulling until it tears as he slips two fingers inside her, curling them harshly. Katherine takes it all in stride, rolling her hips and pushing his fingers deeper, falling down over them harder and Tyler matches her for pace, his thumb brushing her clit as she shudders against him.

“Not gentle at all, are you?” she says as she bites along his shoulder, breathing in little hitching breaths that quicken as she clenches around him.

Tyler bites her back, drawing blood from her neck from pressing too hard. He licks it away. “You don’t want me to be,” he says, twisting his fingers sharply inside her, forcing a high keening sound from Katherine’s lips.

She grins at him, fangs descended and her eyes red-rimmed with bloodlust. “I don’t,” she says, sinking her teeth into his shoulder. She comes not long after, nails digging into his arms as she pulses around his fingers, her teeth tugging on his veins.

Katherine pulls off his shoulder with a sated smile, her face human again. Tyler slides his hand out from between her legs, running his wet fingers along her thigh as Katherine leans forward and lathes her tongue over the healing wound, watches as it closes up before her eyes.

“You heal much faster than Jeremy,” she says, her hands going for his belt. Tyler almost reaches out and stills them, Jeremy’s name coming out of her mouth shocking him for a moment and everything he’s doing hits him and crushes down on his ribcage, making it hard to breathe and his hands are there, touching hers. But he ends up helping her along, shimmying his jeans and boxers down over his hips, catching at his knees.

If he can distract her long enough, she won’t even think Jeremy’s name.

She wraps a hand around him, stroking down and then up, rubbing thumb over the head of his cock and he groans, despite himself. Katherine looks at him, before the fringe of her eyelashes flutter down and she looks almost innocent while her grin says anything but. Then she pulls him to her, lifting her hips and sliding down, crossing her legs over his back, using the heels of her boots to draw him in. He stills for a moment, stuck on the shock of her around him and him inside her, and he blinks up at her as she stares down at him impatiently. Then her heels dig into his back, pinching his skin and he startles like a horse, snapping his hips on instinct.

Tyler thrusts again because it feels good and it’s what his body wants, too far gone now to care that this is probably the craziest, stupidest thing he’s ever done. He decides to let his body take over and turns his brain off, running on auto-pilot as he lets nothing in but pleasurable sensations of skin on skin. He can be elsewhere, he can be with anyone he wants, he can disappear inside his head and pretend he isn’t here in the middle of this mess. He almost can’t feel it when she bites around his neck, licking around the perfect ring she made before the wounds close up.

Katherine nuzzles her face against him until he can feel her lips on the shell of his ear. “Where’d you go?” she asks, her breath coming out in little puffs every time he moves against her. Her hand brushes over his head and down over his neck, cupping his jaw and lifting his eyes to hers. “You weren’t here. I know you weren’t. I can feel it. Where’d did all your rage go? All that fire you had?”

“I thought this is what you wanted?” Tyler hisses as he gets in her face and grabs onto her hips, hiking her up against the wall, thrusting into her hard. “You got it, you won."

She clings to him to stay balanced, but her expression is unmoved, almost bored. "Haven't you been paying attention at all?” Katherine says, frustration marring her tone, almost coming out as a whine. “I don’t want to _win_.”

Tyler doesn’t know how to respond, so he keeps moving, sliding in and out with quicker snaps of his hips, just hoping he can end this soon and be rid of her.

He feels her hands on his neck, warmer than they have any right to be as they stroke along his neck, pulling him in closer like she’s going to kiss him, but instead she wraps her arms around his neck and presses her cheek to his. “You’re not even fighting anymore, are you?” she whispers, brushing her lips across his temple. “You’ve given up. I have to say I’m surprised and bit disappointed. I thought you’d _at least_ be a bit more resistant. But look at you, you’ve rolled over and showed me your belly. It’s kind of sad. You know, Jeremy-”

“Don’t,” Tyler says, grabbing a hold of her chin and pressing her against the wall with the force of his body, feeling as her bones shift and mold to the pressure. “ _Don’t_.”

Katherine smiles. “What are you going to do about it?” she asks, her thumb stroking down his jaw. “Now _Jeremy_ , he was a feisty one. Didn’t stop fighting, didn’t give an inch, so full of Gilbert bravado.” She pauses to sigh and Tyler rips her arms from around his neck, twisting them until they’re crossed over her head as she giggles. She tilts her chin towards him and she grins broader. “You should’ve seen it, there were sparks between us. Do you like to watch, Tyler?” she asks, gasping when he thrusts into her, harder and rougher than before. “You could watch us, me and Jeremy.”

“Shut up,” he says, punctuating it with another thrust. “Shut up, shut _up_.”

Her smile turns sharp and pointed. “Make me,” Katherine says.

Tyler moves faster and with more force behind every snap of his hips, his hands gripping her wrists in a white-knuckled hold and his knees sometimes hitting the wall behind them. “Is that the best you can do?” Katherine says, arching her back, but still acting like she’s not satisfied as he’s fucking her into the wall, fucking her like the animal she wants him to be, feral and savage, the kind that will bite the hand that feeds it. “I bet Jeremy could do better.”

His back aches and it burns on every slide, not slick enough and too much speed, too much friction, too much of everything. And Katherine never stops talking amid gasps and moans, her words never leaving his head, a constant litany of madness falling from her lips as she matches his pace, wriggling her hips somehow in the little space she has between the wall and him. Her nails claw at his hands that hold her wrists, squeezing and cutting off her circulation, if she even works like that, if she’s even built like a human anymore.

But Tyler hits something right as she clenches around him, setting off a chain reaction, or a domino effect because they all fall down anyway. Her breath hitches and her hands ball up into fists, but still she’s able to speak. Her are words bitten off, but Katherine gets him to come, whispering Jeremy’s name in his ear.

It’s hollow and he feels empty, falling limp against her as his hands let go of her wrists and drop to her shoulders, his face cradled against her throat as she hums contentedly, the vibrations against his skin almost feeling like a cat purring without the warmth and softness and security that comes with it. Katherine strokes her hand down the back of his head and he leans into it, somehow desperate for affection that he’s willing to take it from her.

It doesn’t last long.

Katherine shoves him away barely using any of the strength she possess, tossing him aside like a rag doll she got sick of playing with, and he stumbles back, watching in a haze as she picks up the shirt he dropped on the floor and pulling it over her head. She straightens her skirt and brushes her fingers through her tangled hair, somehow getting it to lay in perfect waves again. Katherine looks just like when he arrived, like none of this happened. She’s erased him completely.

She walks towards the door without a glance back, but then she stops, turning slowly. “This was fun,” she says.

“Yeah,” Tyler says, finding his voice. “We’re done, okay? You got what you wanted.”

Katherine looks at him and maybe it’s the first time she ever really does, her eyes wide and open with no trace of guile or amusement, like it’s as raw as Tyler feels. “I never get what I want,” she says. “That’s the point.”

Then she turns around and disappears before Tyler can blink, before he can even register she’s leaving, and then she’s gone.

He’s alone.

 

 

 

Tyler’s first thought after Katherine leaves him is that maybe he should shower, but something stops him. He kicks away his pants and boxers, still in a tangle around his ankles, and heads over to his bureau and pulls out a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and steps into them. He drags an old, ratty hoodie over his head without putting anything on underneath it and goes about gathering his clothes from the floor. Katherine left behind her torn underwear on the floor by the wall, like some sort of twisted souvenir, like he won’t be forever marred that he needs a physical reminder. He scoops them up and stuffs them in the pile of clothes in his arms. He wants to toss them out his window, but he’s not sure how to explain that to his mother when she asks, so instead he stuffs them into his trash and draws the bag up, tying it and putting it by his door, ready to be rid of in the morning.

He steps back into his room and thinks he should go to bed, but he looks at it and he just can’t. Everything looks tainted, everything’s been spoiled. He’ll find no peace here. He ends up pacing back and forth across the room, not sure what to do with himself, but he wants to keep moving, but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t escape what’s in his head.

The sound of the front door opening and closing makes him halt in place, his spine straightening, and he’s not sure if he’s readying himself for a fight or a flight. But whoever it is runs up the stairs and Katherine would’ve already been here by now, Tyler’s not sure why he even thought she’d use the front door.

Tyler feels something fracture inside him when it’s Jeremy that rounds the corner, cheeks flushed and panting like he ran the whole way there, his eyes wide as they take in the room and then finally the sight of Tyler himself. Tyler’s hand impulsively moves to cover his neck, even though the bite marks would have healed by now. His fingers encounter dried blood, crusted and flaking at his touch, and he wants to take his hand away before he gets sick, but then Jeremy would _see_. Tyler looks up and Jeremy’s moved closer, and there’s a look in his eyes that makes Tyler feel stripped bare, like he sees through everything and he knows.

Tyler doesn’t understand why he’s not yelling.

Jeremy steps carefully when he moves nearer and his hand reaches out, his expression soft and understanding, and it tears at Tyler, ripping away little bits of the handle he had on himself. He steps back, out of Jeremy’s reach. Jeremy drops his hand. “I’m too late,” he says, and Tyler hates the way his voice sound, worried and full of regret.

“You’re not late for anything,” Tyler says, not sure where he finds his voice when he two steps from coming undone. “And you should go.”

“She got to you, didn’t she?” Jeremy asks, something steely fortifying his voice and Tyler thinks he looks more solid than he did a week ago and doesn’t know how that happened, too used to clinging to Jeremy and holding him together to notice he could stand on his own two feet. “God, I didn’t know. I didn’t realize until-” He pauses, hurt invading his gaze when he moves forward and Tyler moves back, and Tyler can’t stop it, he just wants him to go, sick of this old familiar dance and this fissuring feeling inside of him. “What happened?” he asks finally.

Tyler wraps his arms around himself, holding tight. “Nothing,” he says, moving around Jeremy and this corner he’s backed himself into, heading towards his bed, but he can’t bring himself to sit down. “Sometimes your hunches are wrong, Jeremy. And you know, there are these things called phones. You should try using them once in a while before you decide to work in some cardio for nothing,” he says, avoiding the looks Jeremy’s shooting him by keeping his eyes cast down, but he feels them, searing through his clothes.

“I called. You didn’t pick up.”

Tyler tries to remember if his phone rang or not, but every time he goes back there in his head, he starts to lose his hold on the settled calm he’s been holding on to since she left him in the wreckage. “I-” he starts, but can’t seem to find the words, no snappy retort coming to him easily to him, no excuse for him to hide behind. Jeremy steps into his space and Tyler can’t find it in him to move away, he’s shaking too badly to trust his legs with switching positions and he doesn’t need to lose his footing now.

“Whatever she did to you,” Jeremy says, and Tyler can hear the concern in his voice, the same tone he’s used a thousand times before in the same intrusive way that used to climb under his skin and make him want to push back, to push Jeremy away and head for the hills. He thought he’d gotten used to it, but old habits die hard and this one rises up on an almost instinctual level and shields him like a defense mechanism. “I get it, but you can’t keep it bottled up like this. You-”

Tyler pushes him back, not roughly, but enough to get the point across. “Don’t tell me what I need to do, Jeremy. I seem to recall you were no open book after your little trip in the tomb, so if you want have a sharing circle, you go first,” he says, not meeting Jeremy’s eyes, then heading towards his desk and pulling out the bottom draw, grabbing up the flask he keeps there.

“You don’t want to hear that,” Jeremy says, walking towards him as Tyler snorts derisively. “It won’t make you feel any better.”

“Then you sure as hell don’t want to hear what I have to say,” Tyler says, then puts the flask to his lips and tilts his head back, enjoying the burn of the whiskey down his throat.

“Don’t do that.“ Jeremy reaches out to him in a failed attempt to grab the flask from his hand, but Tyler pulls away too quickly and steps out of his reach. Jeremy sighs, his stance wilting. “Don’t act like this, don’t hide back behind that asshole front when you can’t deal with something. You’re better than that.”

“I’m not better than anything,” Tyler says, laughing bitterly as he takes another swig from the flask and turning away. “I’m just an asshole.”

Tyler doesn’t know why he tries to push Jeremy away, he always comes back, more insistent and demanding than before. He feels the warmth of his body heat against his back. “I know you,” he says. Tyler’s aware of his fingers touching his shoulder tentatively, then Jeremy drops the act and rests his palm against him.

Tyler wants to shake him off and get to the other side of the room, maybe even out of the house altogether, but some part of him keeps him rooted and wanting, to take whatever comfort Jeremy‘s willing to offer. “You only think you do,” he says, but stays and lets Jeremy put his other hand on him, let his fingers curl and hold onto Tyler.

“I do, and you’re not,” Jeremy says, a soft laugh escaping his lips, the rush of breath ghosting over the skin of Tyler’s neck. “It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. You’re just a prickly, stubborn bastard who’s entirely too self-reliant to let anyone help you, even when you need it and you need it now, so drop the act _and let me help you_.”

There’s still a part of Tyler that wants to let Jeremy in, to let him fix whatever Katherine broke and maybe that part still believes he can, but Tyler knows he can’t. _You’re like me_ , she said and it’s starting to feel more and more like the truth. Everything he touches gets snarled up and morphs into something dark and angry. His own father couldn’t find one thing he liked about him and made him aware of this up until the day he died, his mother doesn’t go a day without drinking, he made a mess of Vicki, and almost ruined his friendship with Matt for good and nearly killed him, twice. He feels jagged and unclean. Katherine cracked him open and dug around inside until she found what he was looking for, then she opened his eyes and made him see what was there all along.

And he didn’t say no.

“I fucked her and I liked it,” Tyler says, feeling almost triumphant when Jeremy’s hands fall off him in shock. He turns around to meet his eyes, trying not to let the swirl of emotions there affect him. He knows he’s being mean and unnecessarily cruel, but if anything, it‘ll get Jeremy out of here and away from him, and that‘s what he needs. “Not what you wanted to hear, I bet? But I guess the truth stings sometimes.”

Jeremy’s brow furrows, and after a moment, he says, “You sound like her.” Then he steps back, his eyes going wide. “You sound like Katherine.”

Tyler feels the momentum building inside him shudder and come to a halt at the sight of the momentary panic flashing in Jeremy’s eyes. He didn’t want this, he didn’t want to make him flash back to what Katherine did to him, and he sure as hell doesn’t want to be like her. He still feels off-balanced, pulled in far too many directions to make sense of anything, but he knows that much is true: he doesn’t want to be like Katherine. But he’s standing here and Jeremy is still looking at him with wary eyes and he doesn’t know what to do anymore.

“Just… _go_.” Tyler tries to soften his features, but his shoulders slump on their own accord as the feeling of defeat permeates throughout his limbs. He catches Jeremy’s gaze and he no longer looks like a nervous deer, he’s got that concerned look on his face, the one Tyler had hoped to erase. “Jeremy,” he tries a bit more firmly. “Go _home_.”

“No,” Jeremy says, then he moves back into Tyler’s space, like he never left, snapping back in place like a rubber band. Tyler looks up and spies the familiar stubborn lock in his jaw, the determined look in his eyes and he feels a shock of anger spike through his veins. “ _No_ , I’m not going home and leaving you like this, so you’ll just have to deal.”

Tyler looks away because he can’t look at Jeremy anymore. He feels like he’s shifting again when all he wants to do is find some solid ground, to be steady again, but with every second that passes, he gets further and further away from that. His eyes fall on his desk and there lays his sketchbook, right where Katherine left it. He’ll never know how long she was here before she picked it up, but somehow she was able to find the one thing out of hundreds of items that probably means the most to him, the one thing that holds everything he keeps from the world and gets right down to the root of him.

And she ruined that, too.

Tyler picks it up and feels the heft of it in his hand. Years and years of adding pages, folding in odd sketches; it holds it all between its well-worn leather bindings. A gift from his grandma, the only person who encouraged him to draw for himself and not to give a shit about what his father had to say. It was the last thing she gave him before she died and it was the one of the few things that kept him sane afterwards. Now all he can see are Katherine’s fingerprints all over it, her taint infecting it and breaking down everything it stood for.

He wants to tear it apart and then burn it, turn it to ash, but it won’t fix anything. Katherine is still all over his room, her memory sleeping in his bed. He’ll never get rid of her, even if he set fire to the whole damn house. But he can’t bring himself to destroy his sketchbook, still clinging to some mad hope that it can be salvaged, even if he can’t stand to look at it anymore.

He throws it, the force behind his toss sending it clear across the room and takes out a lamp before it hits the wall with a satisfying _smack_ , then falls to the floor open with its paper crumpling underneath its weight. And it feels good, makes sense in a way that wouldn’t make any sense if he stepped back and looked at it rationally, but he’s in no state of mind for rational. He picks up the chair next, feeling the antique wood in his hands, how delicate and fragile it is. Tyler could break it in two if he wanted, just snap it cleanly in half, but it would feel as good as smashing it against the wall would.

He finds himself screaming when he hurls it, like it’s been beating against his ribs to be free. His chest heaves and his lungs burn, but the sounds drowns out everything in his head and wipes the slate clean until he left with nothing but blankness. He screams until he can’t breathe, until he has to breathe and he sucks in so deep he ends up coughing, but he feels better even as everything else hurts.

Tyler stops for a moment to look at the destruction he caused, the chair that lays in pieces and smashed into his trophy case, shattered glass glittering on the polished hardwood, his football trophies knocked from their home and cracked in half, his medals in a tangle on the floor. He feels vindicated, even as he realizes he’s practically taking a sledgehammer to his life, smashing his memories to bits. He wants to continue, wants to tear apart his room until it’s just the bare bones, the frame and the studs and nothing more. But he’s creeping back into himself, little by little and he can’t do it, he can’t even move. It’s like waking up after a fight and not knowing what happened.

Then his brain reboots itself and he thinks, _how has mom not woken up and what am I even going to say to her when she sees this?_

His chest hurts from breathing too fast and too hard, and his legs start to give way, buckling and almost folding underneath him. Tyler wants to fall to the floor, thinking that’s where he’s been heading since Katherine left, should have just crumpled where he stood and curled in on himself. Then he feels hands press against his chest as arms wrap around him, holding him steady.

“It’s okay,” Jeremy whispers against his neck as he drapes himself across Tyler’s back, holding tightly around his torso. “You’re fine now, I got you.”

Tyler wants to pull away, it’s his first instinct still and he futilely tries, saying, “No, no, no,” over and over again until it stops making sense and dissolves into noise coming from his mouth. But Jeremy holds on and Tyler gives up, sinking into back into him and letting him carry him for a while.

“Come on,” Jeremy says, pushing him forward and towards his bed, and Tyler goes with it because he feels safe here with Jeremy behind him, guiding his way. “You should sleep.”

He pulls back the covers and reveals the sheets, somewhere Katherine never got to, and waits for Tyler to get under. Tyler climbs and curls around himself as he feels Jeremy slide in behind him. Jeremy folds around him and Tyler feels small, like he needs to be protected and the idea makes him itch. It feels like they’ve flip-flopped somehow, just a few days ago the tables were turned and Tyler was the one holding Jeremy together. He wants to go back to that, he wants to be that guy again and he’s scared he’ll never get there.

He feels Jeremy kiss the back of his neck, his lips lingering as he breathes hot against his skin, then he pulls back and rests his head there, the slope of his nose aligning with the start of Tyler’s spine as his arms wind tighter. Tyler wants to stay here and pretend it never happened, that this is any other night and everything’s fine. But he can’t, not with the evidence littering his room in broken shambles and Katherine lingering on his skin, not when she’s still pulling him down as Jeremy tries to hold him up. He feels thin and stretched in all directions, and doesn’t even know where he stands.

“Shhh,” Jeremy mumbles into his neck, breaking up his thoughts as he nuzzles closer. “I can hear you thinking, you‘re too loud. Stop it. Just sleep.”

And he tries, for Jeremy’s sake, he tries, but nothing is that simple anymore.


End file.
